The ability to trace request execution paths is critical for diagnosing performance faults in large-scale distributed systems. Previous black-box and white-box approaches are either inaccurate or invasive. We present a novel semantics-assisted gray-box tracing approach, called Rake, which can accurately trace individual request by observing network traffic. Rake infers the causality between messag...
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In packet switched networks, statistical multiplexing of independent variable bit rate flows achieves significant resource savings, i.e., N flows require considerably less than N times the resources needed for one flow. In this work, we explore statistical multiplexing using methods from the current stochastic network calculus, where we compare the accuracy of different analytical approaches. Whil...
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The increasing demand for high-quality streaming video delivered to mobile clients necessitates efficient bandwidth utilization and allocation at not only the wireless channel but also the wired backhaul of broadband cellular networks. In this context, we propose techniques for increasing the link utilization and enhancing the quality-of-experience (QoE) for end users while multiplexing video stre...
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Cloud elasticity allows dynamic resource provisioning in concert with actual application demands. Feedback control approaches have been applied with success to resource allocation in physical servers. However, cloud dynamics make the design of an accurate and stable resource controller challenging, especially when application-level performance is considered as the measured output. Application-leve...
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Home area networks (HANs) consisting of wireless sensors have emerged as the enabling technology for important applications such as smart energy. These applications impose unique network management constraints, requiring low data rates but high network reliability in the face of unpredictable wireless environments. This paper presents two in-depth empirical studies on wireless channels in real hom...
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User-generated content (UGC) video systems by definition heavily depend on the input of their community of users and their social interactions for video diffusion and opinion sharing. Nevertheless, we show in this paper, through measurement and analysis of YouKu, the most popular UGC video system in China, that the social connectivity of its users is very low. These observations are consistent wit...
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Online video sharing and social networking are cross-pollinating rapidly in today's Internet: Online social network users are sharing more and more media contents among each other, while online video sharing sites are leveraging social connections among users to promote their videos. An intriguing development as it is, the operational challenge in previous video sharing systems persists, em i.e., ...
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Peer-to-peer file sharing systems, most notably BitTorrent (BT), have achieved tremendous success among Internet users. Recent studies suggest that the long-term relationships among BT peers can be explored to enhance the downloading performance; for example, for re-sharing previously downloaded contents or for effectively collaborating among the peers. However, whether such relationships do exist...
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Aims & Scope

IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management will publish (online only) peerreviewed archival quality papers that advance the state-of-the-art and practical applications of network and service management.